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Benjamin Harrison: Proclamation 292—Admission of North Dakota Into the Union

Whereas the Congress of the United States did by an act approved on the 22d day of February, 1889, provide that the inhabitants of the Territory of Dakota might upon the conditions prescribed in said act become the States of North Dakota and South Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the area comprising the Territory of Dakota should for the purposes of the act be divided on the line of the seventh standard parallel produced due west to the western boundary of said Territory, and that the delegates elected as therein provided to the constitutional convention in districts north of said parallel should assemble in convention at the time prescribed in the act at the city of Bismarck; and

Whereas it was provided by the said act that the delegates elected as aforesaid should, after they had met and organized, declare on behalf of the people of North Dakota that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, whereupon the said convention should be authorized to form a constitution and State government for the proposed State of North Dakota; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitution so adopted should be republican in form and make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and not be repugnant to the Constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and that the convention should, by an ordinance irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said States, make certain provisions prescribed in said act; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitutions of North Dakota and South Dakota should, respectively, incorporate an agreement, to be reached in accordance with the provision of the act, for an equitable division of all property belonging to the Territory of Dakota, the disposition of all public records, and also for the apportionment of the debts and liabilities of said Territory, and that each of said States should obligate itself to pay its proportion of such debts and liabilities the same as if they had been created by such States, respectively; and

Whereas it was provided by said act that the constitution thus formed for the people of North Dakota should, by an ordinance of the convention forming the same, be submitted to the people of North Dakota at an election to be held therein on the first Tuesday in October, 1889, for ratification or rejection by the qualified voters of said proposed State, and that the returns of said election should be made to the secretary of the Territory of Dakota, who, with the governor and chief justice thereof, or any two of them, should canvass the same, and if a majority of the legal votes cast should be for the constitution the governor should certify the result to the President of the United States, together with a statement of the votes east thereon and upon separate articles or propositions, and a copy of said constitution, articles, propositions, and ordinances; and

Whereas it has been certified to me by the governor of the Territory of Dakota that within the time prescribed by said act of Congress a constitution for the proposed State of North Dakota has been adopted and the same ratified by a majority of the qualified voters of said proposed State in accordance with the conditions prescribed in said act; and

Whereas it is also certified to me by the said governor that at the same time that the body of said constitution was submitted to a vote of the people a separate article, numbered 20 and entitled "Prohibition," was also submitted and received a majority of all the votes cast for and against said article, as well as a majority of all the votes cast for and against the constitution, and was adopted; and

Whereas a duly authenticated copy of said constitution, article, ordinances, and propositions, as required by said act, has been received by me:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States of America, do, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim the fact that the conditions imposed by Congress on the State of North Dakota to entitle that State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted and that the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 2d day of November, A.D. 1889, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fourteenth.

BENJ. HARRISON

By the President:

JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State,

Citation: Benjamin Harrison: "Proclamation 292—Admission of North Dakota Into the Union," November 2, 1889. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=71219.